1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an order receiving system and an order receiving method which are used by an item or service provider to receive orders from customers and prepare for and provide items or services according to the orders.
2. Description of the Related Art
Conventionally, restaurants such as quick service restaurant adopt a drive-thru system that allows customers to place an order at a store without getting out of their vehicles and pick up to-go items (food and drinks). The advantage of the drive-thru system is that customers can order items while staying in their vehicles and pick up the items without taking their time to park the vehicles in a parking lot and move to the restaurant, and thus the customers can purchase the items quickly.
Patent Document (JP 2002-366625 A) discloses an order receiving system that receives an order for items beforehand from a customer terminal through a communication network in order to proceed preparation for the provision of to-go items before a customer comes to a store. In this system, orders received from customers are displayed on a display in a store. Information displayed on the display includes expected arrival times of the respective customers, the distances from a vendor transaction facility (i.e., the restaurant) to the customers or the locations of the customers, prediction as to in what order the customers are processed, etc.
However, the above-described Patent Document does not describe at all specifically how to predict the arrival times of the respective customers, in what order the customers are processed, etc.
In addition, when the order receiving system is applied to a service that provides to-go food and drinks, it is, of course, necessary to complete preparation for the provision of items before a customer having placed an order arrives at a store, but too early preparation for the provision of items is not good either. This is because if preparation is too early, hot food and drinks which are items may get cold or cold food and drinks may get warm. Such a thing also applies to facilities that provide services instead of items, and systems that receive reservations beforehand through a communication network so that services can be provided to customers right after their arrival.